Biz Building

Swine Flu Vaccine Safety Video by NVIC

Barbara Loe Fisher talks about swine flu vaccine safety issues in this short but powerful video. She is the National Vaccine Information Center's Co-Founder and President.

Vital questions about the swine flu vaccine:

How will these vaccines be tested to make sure they’re safe?

What solid evidence does the government have that these experimental swine flu vaccines are necessary or effective?

Are state governments prepared to obey vaccine safety provisions in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act?

Who will be held responsible if the swine flu vaccine is not safe and harms children?

Will children be forced to receive the swine flu vaccine, or will parents be able to make that choice?

Watch this video about swine flu vaccine safety and find out why it's a bad idea to turn schools into medical clinics.

"If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow."

— Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-Founder NVIC

On what basis should you decide whether or not to vaccinate your children?

There are two questions that always come up when discussing vaccinations and swine flu vaccine safety.

The first: Are they safe?

And the second: Are they effective?

To be able to answer these questions accurately requires a lot of information. Unfortunately, trustworthy information is not usually easy to get. You can't trust everything you hear in the mainstream media, nor is it easy to confide in government agencies--even, sadly, those which are supposed to safeguard health and safety. So what can we do?

The answer is twofold. One is use common sense. And the other is use the precautionary principle.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with this saying: When in doubt, don't. And that's a good place to start when evaluating swine flu vaccine safety--or the safety of any vaccine, for that matter.

Until the government can provide reliable scientific proof from sources completely independent of the vaccine manufacturers, and there is a broad consensus among independent scientists that vaccines are safe and effective, the best course of action would be to follow your God-given instinct and wait until the proof comes in.

When evaluating sources of information about swine flu vaccine safety, it's important to realize that many doctors and scientists are not independent, primarily because they benefit in some way, directly or indirectly, from pharmaceutical companies' targeted largesse.

We mentioned following the precautionary principle as a strategy in making health decisions. The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of independent scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.

The Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle summarizes the principle this way:

"When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically." (emphasis added)

Which risks are greater?

There is another question that needs to be answered before a parent gives his or her child the swine flu vaccine, or any vaccine: Are the risks my child might face from not getting the vaccine greater than the risks my child faces from getting the vaccine?

This seems like a simple enough question, but the information and data you need to be able to make this decision aren't easily available. You also would need to know a bit about probability and statistics, and about how statistics can, and often are, manipulated or "framed" to make the interpretation of those statistics fit the purposes of the presenters.

But if we simplify this complicated situation, the question becomes: Will my children be healthier, happier, and better able to survive challenges to their health now and in the future by getting vaccinated, or by not getting vaccinated?

Immunization against Disease: A Medical Time Bomb?

The question about vaccine safety in this subtitle was asked 25 years ago by one of America's leading pediatricians, Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D. in his excellent book How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor. We highly recommend this informative and valuable guide to raising a healthy child, especially in today's world. The issues and concerns he presents apply to swine flu vaccine safety and use too.

He explained his concerns about vaccine safety:

The greatest threat of childhood diseases lies in the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made to prevent them through mass immunization.

I know, as I write that line, that this concept is one that you may find difficult to accept. Immunizations have been so artfully and aggressively marketed that most parents believe them to be the "miracle" that has eliminated many once-feared diseases. Consequently, for anyone to oppose them borders on the foolhardy. For a pediatrician to attack what has become the "bread and butter" of pediatric practice is equivalent to a priest's denying the infallibility of the pope.

Although I administered them (vaccines) myself during my early years of practice, I have become a steadfast opponent of mass inoculations because of the myriad hazards they present. The subject is so vast and complex that it deserves a book of its own. Consequently, I must be content here with summarizing my objections to the fanatic zeal with which pediatricians blindly shoot foreign proteins into the body of your child without knowing what eventual damage they may cause.

Below are Dr. Mendelsohn's objections and concerns about vaccine safety. These same concerns apply to swine flu vaccine safety, and should be carefully considered if you are to come to a reliably informed decision about allowing any vaccine to be given to your child, or getting vaccinated yourself.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculations can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease. While it is true that some once common childhood diseases have diminished or disappeared since inoculations were introduced, no one really knows why, although improved living conditions may be the reason. If immunizations were responsible for the disappearance of these diseases in the United States, one must ask why they disappeared simultaneously in Europe, where mass immunizations did not take place.

It is commonly believed that the Salk vaccine was responsible for halting the polio epidemics that plagued American children in the 1940's and 1950's. If so, why did the epidemics also end in Europe, where polio vaccine was not so extensively used? Of greater current relevance, why is the Sabin live virus vaccine still being administered to children when Dr. Jonas Salk, who pioneered the first vaccine, points out that Sabin vaccine is now causing most of the polio cases that appear? Continuing to force this vaccine on children is irrational medical behavior that simply confirms my contention that doctors consistently repeat their mistakes. With the polio vaccine we are witnessing a rerun of the medical reluctance to abandon the smallpox vaccination, which remained as the only source of smallpox-related deaths for three decades after the disease had disappeared. Think of it! For 30 years kids died from smallpox vaccinations even though no longer threatened by the disease.

There are significant risks associated with every immunization, and numerous contraindications that may make it dangerous for the shots to be given to your child. Yet doctors administer them routinely, usually without warning parents of the hazards and without determining whether the immunization is contraindicated for the child. No child should be immunized without making that determination, yet small armies of children are routinely lined up in clinics to receive a shot in the arm with no questions asked!

While the myriad short-term hazards of most immunizations are known (but rarely explained), no one knows the long-term consequences of injecting foreign proteins into the body of your child. Even more shocking is the fact that no one is making any structured effort to find out.

There is a growing suspicion that immunization against relatively harmless childhood diseases may be responsible for the dramatic increase in autoimmune diseases since mass inoculations were introduced. These are fearful diseases such as cancer, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus erythematosus, and the Guillain-Barre syndrome. An autoimmune disease can be explained simply as one in which the body's defense mechanisms cannot distinguish between foreign invaders and ordinary body tissues, with the consequence that the body begins to destroy itself. Have we traded mumps and measles for cancer and leukemia?

As a parent, you are the one who has the responsibility to decide whether or not to vaccinate your child, and only you should make that decision. Before you do, please be sure to arm yourself with the information you need to be able to make a truly informed decision. Not only has swine flu vaccine safety not been established but whether or not vaccines in general promote good health have never been the focus of medical research.

And if your doctor is not able to give you this information, look for the answers to your questions by going to another doctor or to other sources. Be informed. Educate yourself. Don't settle for empty reassurances. Ask to see the facts. Ask the hard questions. It's your child's life and future in your hands. Ask directly about the swine flu vaccine safety issues. It's your right--obligation--as a parent.

That should be considered long, which can be decided but once.

Since it's not possible to undo a vaccine, it's best to seriously study the consequences of vaccination before you consent to the jab, especially the H1N1 vaccine. Swine flu vaccine safety has not been established by serious independent studies and there are serious questions about not only its effectiveness but also its safety.

History of NVIC

The non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) was founded in 1982 by parents whose children were injured or died following DPT vaccine reactions. Located in Vienna, Virginia, this charitable organization is totally publicly supported by donations from citizens and receives no corporate, federal or state grants. NVIC is funded by annual memberships, grants from philanthropic foundations and donations made by individuals for information that NVIC researches, produces and makes available to the public.

The NVIC Mission Statement

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to defending the informed consent ethic. As an independent clearinghouse for information on diseases and vaccines, NVIC does not promote the use of vaccines and does not advise against the use of vaccines. We support the availability of all preventive health care options, including vaccination, and the right of consumers to make educated, voluntary health care choices. (from the NVIC website)